2025-07-23 17:27:02
A number of reforms to fitness to practise procedures have been announced in recent weeks.
The Professional Standards Authority (PSA) which oversees all the stautory healthcare regulators, including the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC), has announced that the regulators will have new powers to use a less adversarial and quicker ‘accepted outcomes’ process for dealing with complaints about healthcare professionals https://www.professionalstandards.org.uk/news-and-updates/news/psa-publishes-guidance-help-regulators-use-new-powers-protect-public . The PSA has provided guidance to the regulators on accepted outcomes. The PSA says that the guidance:
- provides pointers to help regulators decide when a case can be resolved without a public hearing
- advises on when a hearing might be needed to maintain public confidence and ensure a robust review of the evidence
- helps regulators decide who should make the final decision on a case when not referring it to a hearing
- helps regulators decide what information to include when publishing decisions.
The regulators will also have new powers to make and amend the rules governing the way they regulate. These proposals were originally made in 2019. It is not clear when the government will make new rules.
Separately, the General Pharmaceutical Council has announced that it is reviewing the little-used power for its Fitness to Practise Committee to disqualify companies from running a pharmacy business. The GPhC’s chief executive, Duncan Rudkin mentioned at a PLEA seminar some years ago that a number of disqualification cases were outstanding. The GPhC is seeking a discontinuance of pending disqualification cases https://www.pharmacyregulation.org/about-us/news-and-updates/gphc-developing-policy-its-use-disqualification-powers
In addition, according to Council papers referred to in the pharmacy press, the General Pharmaceutical Council plans to pilot an “independent complaint handling service” to help handle its workload for registrant concerns. We have reported on several occasions the GPhC’s failure to comply with PSA standards for fitness to practise cases, especially concerning delays. The GPhC’s Council papers refer to a need for an alternative dispute resolution service to deal with general complaints, and say “We will develop a feasibility option and pilot for an independent complaint handling service as a means of diverting low level concerns about our registrants to a more appropriate service”.